My Musical Culture

Hey, my name’s Savannah! I’m from the very small town of Campobello and I’ve lived in SC my whole life. I’m majoring in psychology, minoring in women’s studies, and I’ll be graduating in May! What I love doing most during my free time is reading, listening to true crime podcasts, and watching TV/movies with my friends. I’ve never really been involved in music or performing at any point in my life but I do have music playing at almost any given time, especially when driving or cleaning. My favorite genres are probably mixtures of pop, indie, punk, and rock.

A song that's ended up in my "On Repeat" on Spotify recently is “Misty” by Butterknife. This is one of only two songs that they’ve released so I can’t say they’re necessarily an artist I love but I do really enjoy this song. I guess the reason I like this song so much at the moment is because it always makes me think of some of the people I care about most. While it sounds mostly like a romantic love song at first, the lyrics “You feel like home to me, even when I lose your key” and “Butterflies in my chest, I know you know me the best” remind me of my best friends and the way they make me feel. I also just enjoy the slight city ambience sounds at the beginning and end of the song because they make it feel a bit more immersive.

A song that resonated very strongly with me as soon as I heard it is “hope ur okay” by Olivia Rodrigo. The lyrics perfectly convey the ways you can lose touch with someone but still care for them and wish them the best. It also has a more underlying message of acceptance and self-love that has the potential to benefit so many people in a variety of ways. I think all of the verses are good but my favorite part is probably the bridge because it manages to feel both suspenseful and comforting at the same time.

One musical genre I've never really connected with is EDM. I understand how it could be enjoyable in a party setting. However, I personally enjoy music that showcases the vocals more than, or at least equal to, the instrumentals. Because of this, most EDM has a bit too much going on all at once for my taste. I’m sure it’s not all the same, just like the music of any other genre isn’t all the same, but a lot of the EDM I’ve heard also seems to become kind of repetitive throughout the span of a 3 or 4 minute song. I don’t particularly like this song either but since Hozier is one of my favorite artists and he collaborated on it, I have listened to it a couple of different times.

I’m including this one just because I mentioned Hozier above and wanted to showcase an example of his music that I really love! I like the song itself but there are also several live versions of him performing it, all of which showcase his vocals over the instrumentals. But at the same time, they show how talented he is both vocally and instrumentally.